- gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

the little red hen
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 02 Jul '06

02 Jul '06

well, well, ok, one of my favorite stories -- the little red hen -- has now hit p.g. with its illustrations, as e-text #18735. -bowerbird

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re: [gutvol-d] a tool for your grandma to download p.g. e-texts en masse
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 29 Jun '06

29 Jun '06

jeroen said: > Although not a nerd, he certainly knows how to use the machine... so, have you got him hard at work proofing for you? ;+) -bowerbird

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Re: [gutvol-d] a tool for your grandma to download p.g. e-texts en masse
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 29 Jun '06

29 Jun '06

dave said: > What have you against Grandparents? it's just an expression, dave. it indicates "not technically inclined". and, like most such stereotypical shorthand, it's got a grain of truth, and not much more. hey, two of my best online e-book buddies -- nicholas hodson and meyer moldeven -- are technically astute (nicholas especially), and they're both into their eighties now... i'm old enough to be a grandparent myself. :+) -bowerbird

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!@!Re: [BP] Re: EXTRA! Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
by Michael Hart 29 Jun '06

29 Jun '06

By the way, as we have continually offered, if anyone would like to write up a different catalogue, counting system, or whatever, we would be only too happy to include it the Newsletters, and in the various archives. I am sure that people could come up with counts both higher, and lower, than whatever method is chosen, and we would be very glad to repost those counts each week, each month, or even each year, if anyone would be willing to put them together in pretty much a free fashion, as long as there was some internal consistency. Nothing like 100% accuracy would be required, and we should have the capability of averaging all such counts, hopefully to see in some manner an average count that reflected what people are used to seeing in library catalogues. As I will be away for a month, now would be a perfect time to do this sort of thing, and if it catches on, perhaps I won't have a Newsletter that I have to do so much of personally when I return after this trip. . .perhaps I won't have to do it at all. . . . Thanks!!! Give the world eBooks in 2006!!! Michael S. Hart Founder Project Gutenberg Blog at http://hart.pglaf.org

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Michael Hart is on the Road
by Michael Hart 29 Jun '06

29 Jun '06

I will be rather slow with my email responses for the next month, and I presumed, already correctly show, that some messages of the somewhat negative kind would come at such a time and I appreciate the way our list members have allowed me the opportunities for an easier time with such message as I don't have to respond alone. I really can't tell you how much I appreciate all the support for the work I have been doing, and hope will continue, with the very wonderful help of perhaps as many as 50,000 volunteers. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Give the world eBooks in 2006!!! Michael S. Hart Founder Project Gutenberg Blog at http://hart.pglaf.org

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re: [gutvol-d] How to digitize SRR's Five Laws?
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

mike said: > Despite being out of print > (a reprint is planned for later this year > by Ess Ess Publications of India > <http://www.essessreference.com/servlet/esgetbiblio?n=000313>), > Five Laws is arguably the most important work in library science to date. that's quite a sad commentary, isn't it, that what is arguably _the_ most important work in library science to date is _out_of_print_... so congratulations on bringing it back to life. the .pdf versions you've made are not as useful as they could be, however, because you've just wrapped the scans into a .pdf. that means that the text cannot be searched or copied out of it, and those are two of the big benefits of e-books. so yes, you are right they would be better with digital text. but there's no need to transcribe. instead, o.c.r. the scans, correct the results, and then wrap that digital text into several formats: plain text could be one, .html could be another, and even .pdf (except this time with text that is searchable and could be copied out of the .pdf). further, the scans could also be used themselves. (but you should strive for higher-quality scans.) here's a rough sketch of how to proceed: 1. scan the book's pages. 2. clean up the scans. (straighten, crop, etc.) 3. perform the o.c.r. 4. clean up the text. 5. proofread the text against the scans. 6. auto-convert the text to .html. 7. auto-convert the text to .pdf. i'd be willing to help guide you on any of the steps. (especially the last couple, which some people might try and tell you are "impossible". don't believe them.) distributed proofreaders would probably also help if you could donate the text to project gutenberg. since there will be one copy in cyberspace anyway, tell the publisher there might as well be lots of 'em. (online copies don't really cannibalize print sales; indeed, there are some indications they feed 'em.) besides, _books_are_for_use_, are they not? :+) for some pretty "digital reprint" examples to look at, see: > http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Mabie/Books_Culture.pdf > http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Cather/Antonia/Antonia.pdf > http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Einstein/Einstein_Relativity.pdf for a look at a system that enables volunteers to proofread, see: > http://www.greatamericannovel.com/mabie/mabiep001.html > http://www.greatamericannovel.com/myant/myantc001.html > http://www.greatamericannovel.com/ahmmw/ahmmwc001.html > http://www.greatamericannovel.com/sgfhb/sgfhbc001.html -bowerbird

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How to digitize SRR's Five Laws?
by Michael May 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

Hi all, I am Michael May, new "Classics Editor" at dLIST, the Digital Library of Information Science and Technology: http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/ dLIST has received written permission from the copyright owner of works by S.R. Ranganathan to post electronic copies of several of SRR's books at the dLIST site, including the original 1931 edition of The Five Laws of Library Science, the main premise of which is "Books are for use!" Despite being out of print (a reprint is planned for later this year by Ess Ess Publications of India <http://www.essessreference.com/servlet/esgetbiblio?n=000313>), Five Laws is arguably the most important work in library science to date. We have experimented with PDF by posting the prefatory pages and Chapter 1 here: http://genie.sir.arizona.edu/1115/ However, Five Laws is over 500 pages and includes numerous illustrations. I believe a text or html version would be much easier to access and preserve. What advice do you have about how to proceed? I was thinking about starting by recruiting volunteers from the LIS community to transcribe the text. What should I think about or plan for before asking people to help? Does Project Gutenberg already have resources available that could help us? I'd very much appreciate any suggestions or advice. Thanks. Mike

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a tool for your grandma to download p.g. e-texts en masse
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

what are the feelings here on releasing a tool for your grandma to download p.g. e-texts en masse? although it seems in line with "unlimited distribution", it will also mean people scraping texts indiscriminately. would someone who has a stake in the bandwidth used please give me a definite answer? thanks. -bowerbird

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re: [gutvol-d] the end of the line
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

brad- the post you quoted, from me, was an errant send. it was actually a message posted by someone else. in general, i don't think much about how existing software will treat my files, because i consider it my job to deliver software that does what i want. non-programmers have to live within their apps, but as a programmer, i create the worlds i want... the question of how to "mark up" line-breaks is a non-starter for me. the plain-ascii p.g. e-texts already have hard line-endings in them indicating line-breaks. those are the ones inserted by p.g. my suggestion was that the original line-breaks should be used instead. i think the discussion has run its course this time. maybe it will come up again. or maybe it will not. and maybe there will be demand from users for e-texts that mimic their hard-copy counterparts, or maybe there will not be. maybe jeroen will work up a template i can use. or maybe he won't. time will tell on all these things. or maybe it won't. -bowerbird

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Daily progress reports missing from [posted]?
by John Hagerson 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

I have not received a daily progress report through [posted] since 22-JUN. Have they been temporarily suspended or discontinued? Have they been moved to another list? Thank you.

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